Heinlein Called It

As anyone who has been in or studies the armed forces knows that weight that combat soldiers carry into battle increases with each generation, from Rome to Afghanistan. The dangers posed on the battlefield, to time spent in combat, to the smaller forces operating deeper in hostile terrain, all contribute to weight they are forced to haul about.

This doesn't even touch the rapid expenditure of ammo in semi-automatic or automatic weapons. All attempts to reduce the weight carried seem to add a little more here and there.

Science fiction of course has long had the solution. Robotic exoskeletons.

They are here.

The US Army has been working on these for about two years (we mentioned them somewhere on the blog) and have passed the first round of test. Now on to round two where the test and implement the chosen design.

Read more at www.military.com.

The idea is a good one, but we all know, it will just encourage someone, somewhere to say, well with the exoskeleton they can surely carry these extra explosive charges . . . .

But even so, this is pretty cool!